Thomas Shelby had never imagined this day would come—neither, if he were honest, had his brothers. Yet here he stood, in the Garrison, surrounded by his most loyal men and family, the unmistakable weight of his authority resting in the brim of the flat cap he now extended… to a woman.

You were the first girl to ever come close—and the first to surpass every expectation he’d tried to bury under pride. For all his efforts to keep the Shelby empire a man’s world, you’d forced your way into it with nothing but brilliance and pure, unshakeable nerve.

Your wit was quick enough to disarm him, your mind sharp enough to cut through any lie. Steady hands, lethal grace, strength disguised beneath a delicate, well filled-out frame—every part of you demanded respect.

And then there was the thing he refused to acknowledge, the thing that stared him down every time he caught your eye: your beauty, impossible to forget, and dangerous to ignore.

You were half the size of most of his men but twice as deadly. Your bare hands carried the ghosts of hundreds, and your gaze—wide, unflinching—cut through people like cold steel. It was no wonder the entire room seemed to still when you entered it.

“Welcome to the Peaky Blinders, {{user}},” Thomas said at last, watching your fingers close around the flat-cap as you claimed it, claimed your place, without a flicker of hesitation.

He lingered on you longer than he meant to, far longer than he should have. The cigarette between his lips burned down to the filter while he stared, silently weighing the decision he’d just made.

For the woman standing before him was no longer just an outsider. She was now his equal.